Get the preview in new markets
Business Central is available in an increasing number of countries across the world. To ensure that Business Central is the right solution for customers in each new country, we're offering a preview version of the service ahead of the launch.
Getting Started with Previews and Sandboxes
Previews and sandboxes are great ways to get started with Business Central. A preview instance contains functionality that is in addition to what's available in the current version. Previews give partners and customers the opportunity to try and provide feedback about functionality that we're thinking about releasing. Though previews are primarily intended for partners, customers are also welcome to use them for a limited time. The current preview of Business Central contains most of the capabilities that are available in Dynamics NAV 2018, which typically require some help from a partner to set up.
To get started with a preview, go to this page and provide your work email address. To learn more about Business Central and the capabilities it offers, refer to the documentation here on this site.
You can think of a sandbox as a non-production environment that you can use on top of your production or preview instance of Business Central. A sandbox lets you safely build and test extensions and develop new functionality to customize the service without affecting the data and settings of your production or preview instances. Right now, all customers who have a production or preview version can use a sandbox.
To learn how to get started with a sandbox, see the instructions below.
Creating a Sandbox Environment
To work in a sandbox environment, you must have a subscription to Business Central. There can only be one sandbox per subscription.
Advanced Functionality Available in a Sandbox Environment
Sandboxes contain an in-client Designer feature that lets you design pages using a drag-and-drop interface and build extensions in the client itself by adding and rearranging fields.
For more information, see Using Designer.
To create a sandbox environment
Sign in to your production or preview instance of Business Central.
Choose the 
icon, enter Sandbox Environment, and then choose the related link.
Choose Create. A tab will open where you can finish setting up your sandbox.
NOTE
If pop-up blocker is enabled in your browser, change it to allow URLs from the .businesscentral.dynamics.com address.
When the sandbox is ready, a Welcome page will display.
If you want to read about scenarios that you can try in a sandbox, such as how to develop extensions, choose the Learn more link. Otherwise, choose Close to continue to the Role Center of your Business Central sandbox instance.
At the top of the Role Center, a notification appears to inform you that this is a sandbox. You can also see the type of the environment in the title bar of the client.
NOTE
The sandbox contains demonstration data for the fictitious CRONUS company. No data is copied or otherwise transferred from the production environment.
You can return to Sandbox Environments page at any time to reset the sandbox.
NOTE
Resetting a sandbox removes it completely, and then recreates it with the default demonstration data.
To switch between your production environment and sandbox, use the Dynamics 365 menu or the Dynamics home page.
NOTE
An administrator or another user can limit or even block user access to the sandbox by using the standard security features in Business Central, such as the User card, user groups and permission sets.
Building New Solutions and Intellectual Property
Business Central offers a set of development tools and a modern platform to build on so you can create your own add-on apps and embed solutions to connect or extend Business Central.
Business Central provides tools that you can use to implement your own add-on and embed functionality to add new industry-specific end-to-end experiences or integrate third-party solutions. For example, you can use an API to build a connected app to exchange data between Business Central and your payroll app. Connect apps can also make use of extensions to create pages to be used for setup, configuration, or to support app-specific features. For more information, see Build Your Business on Dynamics 365 Business Central.
See Also
Getting Started
Working with Business Central
Choosing Your Dynamics 365 Business Central Development Sandbox Environment
The Business Central Administration Center
© 2018 Microsoft. All rights reserved.